vbevan’s Comments

This weird movement towards harsh sentenceing reminds me of a quote I believe was from an ancient greek ruler (paraphrased): If only there was a punishment worse than death for the less serious crimes.

Though on the positive side, making every crime a serious offense is how Australia was created.

Was going to say something like this. I buy most of my games from eBay or sites like Zavvi, due to the massive difference in price (often >50% cheaper). The fact I get the uncensored versions is a bonus, though apperently I may have been breaking the law if customs had of checked.

How big can contempt fines get? Though even $100,000 won't phase Apple much. Personally, I think a night or two in jail for the lawyers who authorised the apology would be much more effective in getting the next one compliant.

A great site to see huge price discrepencies is steamprices. They have a top rip off section and show things like Soldier of Fortune costing up to 80% more in Australia. It's ridiculous. Yet if you try to use a VPN to buy the game cheaply, steam can, and has, blocked whole accounts, meaning you lose access to all previous games you bought too.

Steam is usually a good service, except for this bound to fail policy of price variations on a digital product.

Unless your uncle was taking a picture with the clear intent of using the person in the background to promote a product without their consent or some other commercial use (i.e. the police officer could mind read) then he wasn't breaking any Australian laws. Australia doesn't even have the crazy public figure laws of the US, there's absolutely no expectation of privacy if you are in or visible from a public area.

If they had laws like this passing here in Aus, I'd be dancing there as well.

Based on the law, the cops weren't in the wrong for arresting the dancers. Their job is to uphold the law, whether they agree with it or not (within reason of course). But the protesters aren't in the wrong either. It's their job to question the governments laws and civil disobedience is one of the most effective and safest ways to do it.

Based on the way they executed their job, wow, that was just over the top. They jumped from talking to knee in backs with no middle stage. Wouldn't you first try to handcuff/remove other protesters etc. without having to resort to that? Especially in this case, where there was no threat of violence etc. from the protesters?

I mean, don't they get trained in this? I'm not a cop, but based on common sense and to avoid legal troubles, wouldn't you use these steps, only moving on if people don't obey each one. Especially given the passive resistance faced.:

1. Warn people to disperse, as they are breaking the law.
2. Tell them they are under arrest and them attempt to handcuff them etc.
3. Warn them that if they don't comply you will be required to use more force to subdue them.
4. If they still don't comply, then yes, now you can wrestle them to the ground, reasonably, and handcuff them.

As opposed to:

1. Try to arrest them.
2. Wrestle to ground and put knee in back with 3 other big strong men.
3. Release it to show the world how America takes it's freedoms seriously.
4. ???
5. <> PROFIT

I hope those cops get a massive lecture on reasonable force. Wouldn't want to have them answer a domestic dispute call. They seem to only be trained in escalating the problem. There would be blood.

I read Little Brother by Cory Doctorow recently. What scared me was that the laws for what happened in that book already exist, they just haven't been used quite that freely yet.

In any case, this article did remind me of a quote from that book that showed yet another example of why wanting privacy does not always mean you are hiding something:

There's something really liberating about having some corner of your life that's yours, that no one gets to see except you. It's a little like nudity or taking a dump. Everyone gets naked every once in a while. Everyone has to squat on the toilet. There's nothing shameful, deviant or weird about either of them. But what if I decreed that from now on, every time you went to evacuate some solid waste, you'd have to do it in a glass room perched in the middle of Times Square, and you'd be buck naked?

Even if you've got nothing wrong or weird with your body -- and how many of us can say that? -- you'd have to be pretty strange to like that idea. Most of us would run screaming. Most of us would hold it in until we exploded.

It's not about doing something shameful. It's about doing something private. It's about your life belonging to you.

A little dangerous to comment without all the details isn't it? To put another spin on it, in the other direction to this article:

"FBI raids wrong house looking for WoW gold farmers. The intended targets had opened multiple fraudulent bank accounts in order to scam people attempting to buy the online currency."

While only virtual, the 'Gold' still equates to hours spent performing a task. And in any case, who cares how the fraud is being committed. That's kind of missing the forest for the trees isn't it? Even if the only fraud is on the bank accounts being opened, that's still a fairly serious crime, given the various uses for fake accounts.

The only way this might be a worthwhile piece is if the raid was done at the behest of Blizzard. If not, this is exactly what the FBI is paid to do. Who do you want to investigate what is probably national, if not international, fraud? The local PD?

Why is everyone assuming the FBI are after them for the farming anyway?

A little dangerous to comment without all the details isn't it? To put another spin on it, in the other direction to this article:

"FBI raids wrong house looking for WoW gold farmers. The intended targets had opened multiple fraudulent bank accounts in order to scam people attempting to buy the online currency."

While only virtual, the 'Gold' still equates to hours spent performing a task. And in any case, who cares how the fraud is being committed. That's kind of missing the forest for the trees isn't it? Even if the only fraud is on the bank accounts being opened, that's still a fairly serious crime, given the various uses for fake accounts.

The only way this might be a worthwhile piece is if the raid was done at the behest of Blizzard. If not, this is exactly what the FBI is paid to do. Who do you want to investigate what is probably national, if not international, fraud? The local PD?

Why is everyone assuming the FBI are after them for the farming anyway?

A little dangerous to comment without all the details isn't it? To put another spin on it, in the other direction to this article:

"FBI raids wrong house looking for WoW gold farmers. The intended targets had opened multiple fraudulent bank accounts in order to scam people attempting to buy the online currency."

While only virtual, the 'Gold' still equates to hours spent performing a task. And in any case, who cares how the fraud is being committed. That's kind of missing the forest for the trees isn't it? Even if the only fraud is on the bank accounts being opened, that's still a fairly serious crime, given the various uses for fake accounts.

The only way this might be a worthwhile piece is if the raid was done at the behest of Blizzard. If not, this is exactly what the FBI is paid to do. Who do you want to investigate what is probably national, if not international, fraud? The local PD?

That was my first thought as well, that it's a little presumptuous to say that a professional photographer should be happy moving from photography to teaching. It's not like an athlete becoming a coach, where it's an inevitable move you have to make to stay in the industry. I'm sure alot of photographers would prefer not to teach, simply because they don't enjoy it.

But in this case, I think Mike is actually focusing on the existence of a group of photographers who don't teach due to fear of competition, not on some sudden new market niche that professional photographers should be filling.

On the fear of skill transference leading to obsolescence, isn't this akin to a musician teaching someone how to play the piano, or write sheet music, and then finding that there is no longer demand for them in the music world?

Taking that further, imagine how many techniques and skills in photography die because people are too afraid to pass on the knowledge. Experimentation is good, but almost all the great musicians were mentored by someone equally famous.

It's funny, but this puts me in mind of the whole "infringement=theft" argument, where people think that the reproduction of a piece of work someone means there is now less of that work in existence.

It's sad that some photographers must think their work can be replicated by "having the right settings and pressing a button", since they obviously don't believe they add anything to their work beyond that.

Wow, that was a ramble, obviously I must be sleep deprived. Didn't think I had that large an opinion the short-sightedness of parts of the professional photography industry.